John McCain's poor attempt at humor isn't receiving nearly as much attention as Don Imus's, but is at least as offensive and may be disguising far more dangerous intent. And it's one thing to joke in front of your supporters, but even after given a chance to reflect on whether his off-the-cuff comment was appropriate, he brushed aside complaints. I find this quote quite telling:

Asked if his joke was insensitive, McCain said: "Insensitive to what? The Iranians?"

Well, sure, the Iranians, for one. You know, those 70 million human beings, most of whom have never done anything to concern John McCain and the U.S.

If Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had made similar comments, this country's leadership would be extremely upset and concerned. Well, in fact, he has, and we are. And he wasn't even talking about the U.S. No wonder Iran feels it has to defend itself. Or should it take comfort that McCain's party stands on the side of life?

Posted by Will at 12:22 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In the wake of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, there's a very good open letter by Anant Raut, a lawyer who represents five Guantanamo detainees pro bono, over at Salon.com (you may have to click through an ad to read it). His final closing lines are quite good:

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once wrote, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." It is my belief that the true test of a nation's commitment to liberty occurs not when it is most readily given, but rather when it is most easily taken away.

Posted by Dennis at 17:48 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Vote for a Democrat.

Yes, that's right. The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans' of America have debuted a website where you can see how your representatives' voting records - both Congressmen and Senators - line up with supporting the troops on various issues. Bob Geiger sums it up here and provides a handy chart of the Senators here. Note that the lowest rated Democrat is still higher than the highest rated Republican.

Posted by Dennis at 16:00 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

With any luck, we'll see the Democrats take at least one house of Congress. Here's some information about some of the Republican candidates running (re)election around the nation:

• AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl
• AZ-01: Rick Renzi
• AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth
• CA-04: John Doolittle
• CA-11: Richard Pombo
• CA-50: Brian Bilbray
• CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave
• CO-05: Doug Lamborn
• CO-07: Rick O'Donnell
• CT-04: Christopher Shays
• FL-13: Vernon Buchanan
• FL-16: Joe Negron
• FL-22: Clay Shaw
• ID-01: Bill Sali
• IL-06: Peter Roskam
• IL-10: Mark Kirk
• IL-14: Dennis Hastert
• IN-02: Chris Chocola
• IN-08: John Hostettler
• IA-01: Mike Whalen
• KS-02: Jim Ryun
• KY-03: Anne Northup
• KY-04: Geoff Davis
• MD-Sen: Michael Steele
• MN-01: Gil Gutknecht
• MN-06: Michele Bachmann
• MO-Sen: Jim Talent
• MT-Sen: Conrad Burns
• NV-03: Jon Porter
• NH-02: Charlie Bass
• NJ-07: Mike Ferguson
• NM-01: Heather Wilson
• NY-03: Peter King
• NY-20: John Sweeney
• NY-26: Tom Reynolds
• NY-29: Randy Kuhl
• NC-08: Robin Hayes
• NC-11: Charles Taylor
• OH-01: Steve Chabot
• OH-02: Jean Schmidt
• OH-15: Deborah Pryce
• OH-18: Joy Padgett
• PA-04: Melissa Hart
• PA-07: Curt Weldon
• PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick
• PA-10: Don Sherwood
• RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee
• TN-Sen: Bob Corker
• VA-Sen: George Allen
• VA-10: Frank Wolf
• WA-Sen: Mike McGavick
• WA-08: Dave Reichert

Posted by Dennis at 15:30 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's quite satisfying to see the cracks slowly starting to appear in the legend of Rudy Giuliani. Since 9/11, the former Mayor of the City of New York has been fellated for his "leadership and inspiration" in the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Center. As someone who watched the towers burn up close and personal, I never felt inspired or comforted by Giuliani's presence, and have been rather sickened by the worship he has received since that day. A new book, Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11, criticizes decisions made by Giuliani both before and after the terrorist attacks. An excerpt is printed this week in The Village Voice. Perhaps people will finally critically assess America's Mayor. Being in charge at the time of a crisis and showing appropriate sympathy for the dead should not automatically make one a national hero (or a presidential candidate -- gag).

Posted by Will at 20:56 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Last night's episode of The Boondocks was on point, exploring what the world may have been like if Dr. King had fallen into a coma when shot instead of being killed. Check for the re-run later in the week if you missed it. McGruder so bitingly illustrates that though we may have come a long ways in the fight for civil liberties, we still have a long way to go, and that distance seems to continue to get longer with every reactionary right wing judge that gets appointed to the bench...

Here a snippet of Dr. King's famous speech.

Posted by Dennis at 14:09 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Yesterday was election day, and Texans overwhelmingly showed that the majority of them are either bigots, incapable of reading, or incapable of clearly expressing an idea.

Proposition 2 was passed, 76% to 24%. This proposition was ostensibly to ban gay marriage, but if you read the actual language of the proposition, you'll find that it can easily be interpreted as banning all marriage. In fact, any good logician would tell you that it is the only possible interpretation. Here's the relevant portion:

Sec. 32. (a) Marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman.

(b) This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage.

Section 32a is the part banning gay marriage. I disagree with legislating away rights, but I digress. Section 32b is the kicker. Marriage is quite clearly identical to marriage, and therefore cannot be created or recognized in this state or any political subdivision of the state.

So, to all you formerly married people out there in Texas, celebrate your newfound single status!

Seriously, though, this wording is going to come back and bite Texans on the ass - it won't take long before corporations start taking advantage of this. They'll start denying spousal benefits to everyone, and you'll have to litigate to get them back. The only people who are definitely going to benefit from this are the lawyers...

Posted by Dennis at 16:48 (Central) | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

One interesting thing that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere except one small throwaway line in an article I saw in the Houston Chronicle is that a large, traditionally Democratic-voting population has just been transplanted into Texas. Here's to hoping they settle down in District 22.

Posted by Dennis at 16:31 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I don't know how many people read this site (probably not many) and of those, I imagine it is a small subset that care about politics, and an even smaller subset that actually follow the comments about science that I've been posting. Anyway, there are a couple of ongoing discussions; you might be interested in reading them (check the left side). Here's what I really want to say, though: Not all ideas are valid under all circumstances. That pretty much cuts to the heart of my stance on creationism/"intelligent design" and my opinion of the media with regards to political coverage. While there might be two (or more) sides to every story, both sides are not necessarily equally right. We as scientists and educators have a responsibility to actively debunk bad science (e.g., cold fusion) and things that aren't science at all (e.g., creationism/ID). The media ought to take up the responsibility of actively checking the talking points that politicians spit out. Because they don't, I suggest checking in over at Media Matters whenever a talking head spouts some drivel that makes it into the press. Katrina's utter devastation has seen the media call out the GOP talking heads, but how long will that last? Update: some elaboration (or rambling, depends on how you see it) after the jump.

Continue reading "a small note about ideas" »

Posted by Dennis at 17:41 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Every time I check the news, it infuriates me. I mean, it's pretty plainly obvious that the Bush administration dropped the ball and is now trying to cover up their mistakes, even though their energy _should_ be going towards actually doing something for the people affected by Katrina. Sometimes you just have to step back and breathe deeply (literally or metaphorically) in order to maintain some sanity. For a lot of people, including me, that means falling back on routines. The daily New York Times crossword puzzle goes a long way towards calming me down (even though the rest of the paper regularly drives me crazy) and when I combine it with a pint it makes for the perfect post-radio show tradition. I'm not even going to try to cover all of the Katrina-related news, but I will point you towards some sources of news and (liberal) commentary that I've been checking: * AmericaBlog has been on top of breaking news better than anyone else I've seen. * Oliver Wang a.k.a. O-Dub is actually a music writer, but he's an educated man (Ph.D.) who writes coherently, and has been touching on a lot of the social issues implicit in Katrina's devastation (poverty and race). * The usual suspects: Daily Kos, Political Animal, and Eschaton. * Update: Check out this timeline of events put up over at Talking Points Memo. I was heartened by the way that the media tore into the Bush administration last week, but all signs are pointing toward the media reverting to their natural sycophantic ways and regurgitating Bush administration talking points. We'll see what happens - when all is said and done I expect that Katrina will have an unprecedented body count, ecological damage beyond imagination, and an economic impact that will last for years.

Posted by Dennis at 10:31 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

You may or may not have heard about Kanye West's impromptu remarks about George Bush that he made during a Red Cross telethon the other day. (the video is here) Well now he's gone and topped himself with a new beat for Houston's own Legendary K.O. (formerly known as K-Otix). Damien and Big Mon rip Dubya a new one. Update: I should have paid more attention on the first listen; it's a flip of the beat for "Gold Digger" feat. Jamie Foxx. So, it's not a new beat, it's just been re-used by Damien and Big Mon. You can get both from this torrent I packaged up. (Assuming I packaged it up correctly.) Kanye vs. Bush (video from Red Cross benefit, plus new song feat. the Legendary K.O.)

Posted by Dennis at 15:09 (Central) | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Here is a message from a friend of mine who is in the Army.

Having fought in Iraq I understand quite well the capabilities and capacities of our military. The fact that people went without food or water at the Super Dome for days in this country is preposterous. I am on an Army installation just a short helicopter ride to the north of New Orleans. It would be what civilians refer to as a "no-brainer" to get palettes of MRE's and water to the Super Dome in a matter of hours. All someone has to do is ask, the right person, and whoever that person is, didn't or it would have been there. 40,000 National Guard troops however, takes some time, but for the necessities of food and water, there is no good reason why support was not requested of the military (and delivered) earlier on. This is possible because of something called a PREPO-YARD. It stands for Preposition Yard, and they are all over the Army, at every installation. These preposition yards, are large stocks of food and other items essential to a rapidly deploying or under-supplied unit. They are there for situations like this too. Every deployable unit in the Army is, generally speaking, supposed to be deployable in 72 hours or less. That means: on the bird, ready to go. Some Airborne units maintain at least a battalion size element (approx. 400-500 soldiers) on a "ready force" status, ready to be "wheels up" in 18 hours or less. Now that's "ready to go to war half way across the world". To put some necessities on a helicopter is just a few hours of preparation. The fact of the matter is, we can sling load MRE's and water on a Chinook and deliver them to a 10 digit (read: very precise) grid coordinate on a moments notice, half way around the world. Somebody in the local, state, or federal leadership dropped the ball, big-time, and someone should go to jail for it. I am ashamed today to live in the same country that would allow this calamity to go on. To think that it could be my family there makes me so angry my blood boils.

Posted by Dennis at 09:37 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There's not a whole lot I can say that hasn't been said already. Donate money to the Red Cross and if you're in the Houston area, consider donating blood, as survivors are being evacuated to this area and blood banks are in short supply. Hurricane Katrina has proven to be the worst catastrophe the U.S. has seen, in terms of number of people affected and total property damage. New Orleans is now effectively an extension of Lake Pontchartrain. Where was George Bush during all of this? On vacation, playing a guitar. I don't mean to make light of the human aspect of this disaster, but another aspect of this disaster that hasn't been covered much is the impact on American energy security and the economy. Well, if you hadn't heard about peak oil, you better start reading about it. The near future is only going to be a small taste of what is to come. The oil industry is on a razor's edge, and now that 20 or more oil rigs are damaged or missing, we're going to see some serious volatility in prices of _everything_ in the near future. Even though the Bush administration has authorized the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to refineries in the short term, large problems still exist, like the fact that South Louisiana and New Orleans were two of the top 5 ports in the nation, and half of the nation's refineries are on the Gulf Coast. Projections for rebuilding New Orleans and the surrounding areas are on the order of _months_ at this point, _years_ for a full rebuild. My guess is that we're going to see $100/barrel crude before the end of the year, and $4/gallon gasoline. Concomitant with that, I expect that prices of everything else will go up because shipping costs will rise. Start saving your money...

Posted by Dennis at 03:07 (Central) | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Austin MC Bavu Blakes was apparently selected as a top ten finalist in Scion's "Nextup" contest by a panel consisting of DJ Premier, Green Lantern, and Sean Cane. And then he was promptly disqualified for "political lyrics." Check the press release over at HoustonSoReal for more information.

Posted by Dennis at 09:25 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Listen up people - "intelligent design" is not science. It has no place in a science curriculum, because you cannot design an experiment to test its validity. Our dear leader Bush has just come out in favor of teaching "intelligent design." From the poorly researched article in The Herald (Bradenton, FL):

Bush compared the current debate to earlier disputes over "creationism," a related view that adheres more closely to biblical explanations. As governor of Texas, Bush said students should be exposed to both creationism and evolution. On Monday the president said he favors the same approach for intelligent design "so people can understand what the debate is about." The Kansas Board of Education is considering changes to encourage the teaching of intelligent design in Kansas schools, and Christian conservatives are pushing for similar changes in other school districts across the country. "I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," Bush said. "You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes." The National Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science have both concluded that there's no scientific basis for intelligent design and oppose its inclusion in school science classes. "The claim that equity demands balanced treatment of evolutionary theory and special creation in science classrooms reflects a misunderstanding of what science is and how it is conducted," the academy said in a 1999 assessment. "Creationism, intelligent design, and other claims of supernatural intervention in the origin of life or of species are not science because they are not testable by the methods of science."

Let's re-read that last line together, shall we? "Creationism, intelligent design, and other claims of supernatural intervention in the origin of life or of species are not science because they are not testable by the methods of science." This is a joint statement by the NAS and the AAAS, perhaps the two premier scientific organizations in the US. If you're going to take anyone's opinion about the subject, it should be their opinion. What the hell does Bush know? He claims that people should be exposed to different ideas. I agree with that, but should they be taught ID as science? No. Faith, religion, philosophy maybe, but not as science.

Posted by Dennis at 11:46 (Central) | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)

The big news of the last week was the announcement by China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) of an unsolicted $18bn USD bid to buy Unocal. This has huge implications for the United States in both political and economic terms. The American economy is driven by oil. Besides providing a source for electrical energy and transportation, much of the high tech sector is reliant on oil as well, whether you realize it or not. Plastics - made from oil. Medicines - made from oil. Fertilizer and pesticides - made from oil. The list goes on and on. Already the rising price of sweet crude (over $60 a barrel as of today) is putting a pinch on the economy. Oil is a commodity, but control of oil is a matter of national security. While many of the major oil corporations are American, the fact of the matter is that the majority of the reserve holdings that these companies possess don't lie anywhere within the United States. That marks oil as a very unusual commodity. I predict that within thirty years at least two wars will have broken out _explicitly_ over the control of oil - as demand continues to increase, and supply doesn't, countries will resort to force to ensure access to the drug of the nation. We currently import about two-thirds of the oil we use, and because the US passed its peak oil output in 1970, that ratio is only going to worsen. As powers like China and India industrialize, demand will continue to increase, while supply has more or less reached its peak. (Go read up on the concept of 'peak oil,' and get scared.) Clearly, allowing China to purchase an American oil company would seem to go counter to American interests. However, from a political and economic perspective, I'm not sure that there is much that we can do about it. We are hoping that China will apply pressure to North Korea to help with nuclear disarmament, and China-Taiwan policy also hangs in the balance. Economically, China is already one of the favored trading partners for Australia and Japan and has been building relations with many of the countries in OPEC. In fact they have been building pipelines and ports like crazy, with the clear intent of ramping up importation of oil and natural gas. Most significantly though, is the fact that China is one of the largest holders of the American debt. If they so chose, they could crash the American economy right now by simply unpegging the renminbi from the dollar, and divesting or diversifying its foreign currency holdings. China is holding all of the cards in this gambit, in part due to the poor playing of the current administration. It all seems rather grim, doesn't it? Well, that's because it is. We need to wake up, start conserving energy drastically, and begin looking to alternative sources of energy (it's already probably too late to prevent a recession, but we can at least prevent disaster). We need to reduce our both our national deficit and our trade deficit (don't look to the Bush administration to get it done) so that our economy can't be held hostage by any one country (except the oil producing ones). We needed to get it all done yesterday.

Posted by Dennis at 17:39 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Finally, someone outlines a concise, beautiful vision for what Democrats should stand for and not only is it from the junior senator from Illinois (99th in seniority in the Senate), Barack Obama, but it was the commencement speech at the small liberal arts college (Knox College) in my hometown (Galesburg). Please take the time to read this speech. It is one of the most beautiful works I have read in ages. An excerpt follows after the jump.

Continue reading "the Democratic vision" »

Posted by Dennis at 20:06 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One of the best and shortest political posts I've seen in a long time.

Posted by Dennis at 16:10 (Central) | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Everybody should read this transcript of a speech given by Bill Moyers. (There's a slightly more readable version over at Salon.This is a fundamental problem with the direction America is taking; the average person has stopped paying attention. Pretty soon, they'll be led around like sheep. The religious right is slowly undermining everything that makes the USA great - now they want to redefine "science" in the pursuit of teaching "intelligent design" as a theory instead of evolution. This makes me so utterly ill. "Intelligent design" is not a theory, it's a farce. See my previous post on this matter.

Posted by Dennis at 12:39 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As a scientist by training, it pains me when I see full-on idiocy being promoted by anyone, but of late, it's largely been the conservatives with their heads up their asses. The latest offense is the effort in promoting the teaching of "intelligent design" (read: creationism) in schools. This one galls me the most because I am a biologist. Sure, I suppose an omnipotent higher power _could have_ designed all life on this planet, and embedded fossils in the ground, but by the same token, a highly advanced race of space aliens could have done the same thing. That doesn't mean that it happened. Evolution is the simplest explanation - we've actually seen evolution at work in the adaptation of various microbes to selective pressures. Occam's Razor applies here, folks - that's kind of the whole point of science. Science is about finding facts, and then developing the simplest theory that encompasses the totality of the facts. Inventing a higher power or an alien race is quite clearly not the simplest theory when we already have observed evolutionary events occur (albeit not on a grand scale). From a recent article in the Washington Post:

At the state and local level, from South Carolina to California, these advocates are using lawsuits and school board debates to counter evolutionary theory. Alabama and Georgia legislators recently introduced bills to allow teachers to challenge evolutionary theory in the classroom. Ohio, Minnesota, New Mexico and Ohio have approved new rules allowing that. And a school board member in a Tennessee county wants stickers pasted on textbooks that say evolution remains unproven. A prominent effort is underway in Kansas, where the state Board of Education intends to revise teaching standards. That would be progress, Southern Baptist minister Terry Fox said, because "most people in Kansas don't think we came from monkeys."

Of course evolution remains unproven. You can never _prove_ a theory beyond a doubt, as it only takes one counter-example to disprove it. However, evolution has withstood all challenges to this date, and my guess is that it will continue to do so. And with (no) respect to the minister - evolution doesn't say that we came from monkeys, it says that at some point long ago in the past, it is likely that we shared a common ancestor. There is a significant difference in meaning. Go read the rest of the article. It's not just limited to evolution, but that's the visible issue. The religious right is systematically dismantling scientific thought and replacing it with their own beliefs. It's terribly depressing that most Americans can't separate their faith from their worldview. It's one of the reasons that the U.S. is falling behind Europe, Japan, and soon China and India in innovation, research, productivity, you name it. Better go learn Mandarin soon.

Posted by Dennis at 11:39 (Central) | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Josh Marshall had a rather lengthy post today about the battle over Social Security. Buried near the end was the best part of the post; he summarized my thoughts on the issue better than I ever could:

The real point, though, is that when you set aside all the practical matters of debt and transition costs, this is an ideological debate -- or to put it less antiseptically, a debate over different sets of values.

The idea behind private accounts is that people should rely on themselves alone and bear the consequences of their successes and their failures and random chance on their own shoulders. If things don't pan out for you in retirement, that's something to take up with your children.

The concept behind Social Security is fundamentally different. The first premise is that if you put in a lifetime's work there is simply a level of destitution below which society will not let you fall. Maybe you made so little during your working years that there wasn't enough to save. Or maybe you just didn't plan ahead well enough. Or maybe you suffered some misfortune. Whatever. If you worked you won't be destitute when you retire. People who made big bucks through their lives don't get a particularly good 'deal' from Social Security, if you insist on seeing it in investment terms. But that's a distorting prism, sort of like thinking you got a rotten deal on your medical insurance if you never have a catastrophic illness.

I like to think of this as the moral equality of work. In our society, we allow the market to assign all manner of different cash values to different sorts of work or even the same sorts of work under different circumstances. And by and large, within some very small limitations like the minimum wage or certain non-discrimination laws, most of us think this is how it should be. I certainly do. (In this sense, I think collective bargaining amounts to another competitive arrangement within a market economy -- though doctrinaire free market folks have always seen it in contrary terms.)

But the cash value of work isn't the same as its moral value. And if you look at the values imbedded in all those Social Security actuarial tables, you see this principle: whether you were a janitor or a fast-food worker or a doctor or a tycoon, if you worked during your working years you shouldn't be left destitute when your working years are over (retirement) or when, through no fault of your own, you can't work anymore (disability). No matter what. The common denominator is a life of work -- skilled or unskilled, impressive or unimpressive, remembered or forgotten. It doesn't matter.

I hope that society has gotten to the point where we really do feel like there is a moral obligation to take care of those who have fallen through the cracks somehow. Given the way that the economy is shifting - less loyalty from employers to employees, reduced wages (check out the details on Rick Santorum's (R-Sen, PA) bill that _supposedly_ raises the minimum wage but really does exactly the opposite), outsourcing of jobs to foreign countries, and rising cost of health care, among other things - Social Security is the least that this government can do for its people. Instead, the Republicans currently in power keep slashing taxes for the rich, cutting basic social programs, and making things harder in general for the average person to get by. Why do we keep voting these bastards in?

Posted by Dennis at 16:03 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The truth of the matter is that sometime in the last 50 years, there has been a significant change in the way that the economy functions. While more people are better off than before, economic risk has shifted from corporations to people. It is, I believe, a fundamental difference between the ways that conservatives and liberals think - conservatives view small government as an end in and of itself, regardless of who or what it actually impacts, while liberals are not opposed to small government, but instead feel that government, as a whole, has a responsibility to its citizens. I got into an interesting discussion yesterday with a person here at work about Social Security and privatization, but I think that the underlying schism was exactly this - I believe that the government (society) has a responsibility to try to assist those who stumble. I also believe that the average person isn't capable of planning for the long term future, especially not when the insurance and medical industries are set up the way they are here in America. Peter Gosselin of the Los Angeles Times has written several interesting articles dealing with the shift in economic risk. Three of the articles fall in a set that they have entitled The New Deal (cleverly co-opting FDR's name for his programs) and another one was published today dealing with the new bankruptcy bill that looks like it might actually get pushed through the Senate. It's a little depressing, watching the right dismantle America.

Posted by Dennis at 10:30 (Central) | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

No time right now for much half-assed opinion or analysis, but a couple of positive court decisions came down today. In case you missed them... Following up on this entry: Jose Padilla, the American citizen arrested inside the U.S. and subsequently stripped of his constitutional rights, must be charged or released within 45 days. Of course, the U.S. plans to appeal the ruling, so Padilla will continue enjoying his third year of sitting in limbo. Also today: The U.S. Supreme Court decided that executing minors is unconstitutional. Another small step in the right direction, I believe.

Posted by Will at 20:45 (Central) | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been following with great interest the debate over Social Security that is currently going on. The Bush Administration has a plan that will eventually result in the dismantling of the program as we know it. They keep trying to bill it as a good thing, but just on benefits alone, it's a total lie. Today I saw a very interesting little web application to calculate how much the Bush plan would cost you. When I was growing up, I was convinced that Social Security wasn't going to be around by the time that I retired. The current projection is for Social Security payments to exceed the trust fund in 2042. At that point benefits would have to be cut partially, but there would still be benefits. I'll be 66 at that point, which means I would still see some benefits. The truth of the matter is that there is no crisis. Using the trustee's own intermediate projections, the program is solvent until 2042, and then would only require benefit cuts - which I might add, are less than the cut which would happen if Bush privatizes Social Security. On top of that, here is a link that suggests that the intermediate projection should really be the high cost projection which suggests that Social Security might be solvent indefinitely anyway. I'll be following this debate closely; hopefully people wise up to the Bush administration's duplicity. Unfortunately, I doubt they will - no one likes to talk good policy, they just care if the guy seems likable.

Posted by Dennis at 21:10 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

U.S. Wraps Up Search for Banned Weapons in Iraq No comment.

Posted by Will at 19:40 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today, the military tried and failed again at getting a missile defense system to function properly. Interestingly enough, when I stumbled across this story at Google News, there were very few articles about it, and none of the main articles listed were from American news sources. You can see what I mean from the image. Suppression of the media by the administration? Here's a choice quote from the article, emphasis mine: bq. The Missile Defense Agency has attempted to conduct the test several times this month, but scrubbed each one for a variety of reasons, including various weather problems and a malfunction on a recovery vessel not directly related to the equipment being tested. We need to have perfect weather conditions for the missile defense system to work? I don't think that Kim Jong Il is going to give a damn about what the weather is like when he decides to launch missiles against the US... There are bigger problems than that anyway. Missile defense in general is just a flawed plan for a ridiculous number of reasons - I'm not going to go into them here, not now anyway, but basically it's just a giant boondoggle that allows the government to line the pockets of wealthy military defense types. Hopefully we can throw the bums out of office at the next election...

Posted by Dennis at 14:38 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I think I'm going to be physically sick. I can't believe we have another 4 years of this to go through. This is the death of personal freedoms; the start of an ultraconservative moral regime; the Puritanization of America. How could we have elected an idiot _twice_?!?! Time to move to Canada.

Posted by Dennis at 13:53 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Tomorrow is November 2nd. Be sure to vote - this may be the most important presidential election of the last twenty years. Every vote counts, so make your voice heard.

Posted by Dennis at 20:10 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today was my second day working as a volunteer for the Morrison campaign. For those of you who don't know, Richard Morrison is the Democrat running for Congress against Tom Delay. Although District 22 is fairly Republican leaning, I believe that Morrison has a decent shot at defeating Delay, especially after watching the campaign at work. Apparently, Morrison is actually running several points ahead of Kerry/Edwards in the district, so it's a possibility. Yesterday I wandered down to the campaign office in Clear Lake and they put me to work immediately. I spent the afternoon working my way down lists of registered voters in the precinct and finding out whether they supported Morrison or Delay, or were undecided. If they were Morrison supporters, we were to ask if they wanted a yard sign, if they were undecided, we were to ask if they would like us to send them more information. Most of the time I ended up getting an answering machine or voice mail, but the few times that I did get to speak to an actual human I found a pretty reasonable split between Democrats and Republicans. I think Morrison's biggest problem right now is his lack of name recognition. Most people didn't know who he was, but a lot of people seemed interested in the fact that someone was actually running against Tom Delay.

Continue reading "volunteering for Richard Morrison" »

Posted by Dennis at 23:47 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The hate measure that was the Federal Marriage Amendment was soundly defeated in a procedural vote in the Senate the other day. The Democrats were, I believe, filibustering, and the Republicans could not even muster the 60 votes necessary for cloture. Hell, they couldn't even muster a _majority_ of votes, as the vote for cloture was defeated 50-48, let alone gather the two-thirds vote (67 votes) necessary to pass the amendment. Now while Senator McCain is one of the most conservative Republicans out there and I don't agree with him on a lot of issues, at least he's a rational person. The fact of the matter is that the Americans are becoming more tolerant than ever. Gay marriage isn't going away. Its time might not be now, but it is almost certainly coming. Get used to it.

Posted by Dennis at 21:42 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

On Monday the Supreme Court issued a decision on the Jose Padilla case. Or rather, they evaded issuing an opinion.

Continue reading "now they got me in a cell..." »

Posted by Will at 19:45 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's an opportunity to meet with Richard Morrison. He's running against Tom Delay in TX-22. While I don't know what his chances of winning are, anything we can do to piss off the unethical Tom Delay is a good thing. In case you're too lazy to click the links, people will be meeting at Kaveh Kanes coffeeshop downtown on Friday, 18 June 2004 between 1pm and 3pm.

Posted by Dennis at 17:26 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The last week has been an interesting one in politics. Stephanie Herseth won the at-large seat for South Dakota in a special election last Tuesday. This is only the second special election the Democrats have taken from the Republicans in a decade. She'll have to defend the seat in November, but momentum is looking good for the Dems. The Gipper passed away on Saturday, which has been overshadowing all of the news of the Bush administration's slow implosion. Rumor has it that Tenet's resignation might have been over some deeper issues than is being reported in the press. Currently there are a ton of scandals being investigated, including the Valerie Plame outing and the Chalabi-as-Iranian-spy fiasco. Maybe Tenet just wanted to get out while the getting was good. The old maxim is that "All politics is local." To that effect, I'd like to point other Texas residents to this site, Texas Tuesdays. They're planning on spotlighting a different Democratic candidate running for Congress each Tuesday. Two of the more important ones to support (in my view) are Richard Morrison (he's running against Tom Delay), and Morris Meyer (he's running against "Smoky" Joe Barton). Be sure to register to vote and donate a couple of bucks if you can. Even better, if you have the time, consider volunteering for one of the campaigns. Come September and October, I'll probably give up some of my time to pound the pavement for Richard Morrison - District 22 isn't that far from Houston and if I can help get rid of Tom Delay, so much the better...

Posted by Dennis at 13:05 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I haven't spoken much lately on the political situation largely because it's so fucked up I don't know where to start. But this rumor should be food for thought for every American going into November's presidential election: Selective Service eyes women's draft

Continue reading "draft rumors" »

Posted by Dennis at 16:28 (Central) | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

For months leading up to the invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration kept telling the public that Saddam needed to be ousted because he posed an _immediate_ or _imminent_ threat to the safety of the rest of the world because he possessed weapons of mass destruction. It has now become clear to the world that Iraq did not in fact possess WMDs (although a frighteningly large percentage of US citizens believe that we found them). The Bush administration has been trying to put spin on this, trying to cover it up, and have even gone so far as to try to recant some of their words. Donald Rumsfeld got caught in his own lies the other day on video.

Continue reading "Rumsfeld's blatant lies, Bush endorsed by terrorists" »

Posted by Dennis at 15:29 (Central) | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Today is the day of the primaries here in Texas. I encourage you to go out and make your voice heard if you're a registered voter. If you're not a registered voter, you should be. If you live in Houston, you can go to the website for the Tax Assessor-Collector for more information about registering to vote, or to find your precinct and polling location. Everyone who is over 17 years and 10 months is eligible to register to vote in Texas, and you must register at least 30 days prior to the election. So get ready for November! In order to encourage people to register to vote, I will give away a free mix cd of my choice to _everyone_ who sends me a photocopy of their voter registration card. This offer is good to anyone in the United States, regardless of age, political affiliation, or state of residence. I'm going to try to expand this offer in the future by contacting record labels and seeing if I can get them to donate stuff. I'll also sweeten the deal and give you an extra cd for every 10 people you encourage to register to vote as well (have them send me their voter registrations, and be sure to have them mention you). I reserve to right to retract or modify this offer at any time. I promise I will not use any personally identifying information from your voter registration for any use besides sending you a free cd. You have no obligation to actually vote, although I hope that you would choose to vote Bush the hell out of office. Here are a couple of places for information about registering: # Declare Yourself # Working For Change # Federal Election Commission So send me a photocopy of your voter registration! Dennis Lee Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology Rice University, MS-140 6100 S. Main St. Houston, TX 77005

Posted by Dennis at 14:09 (Central) | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (1)

I go AWOL!!! I don't really care that much if Bush skipped out on his National Guard duty or not. There are hundreds of better reasons to hate him, and if I was drafted to fight in Iraq, I sure wouldn't go. However, since the subject does seem to have people excited, I thought this recent article by Richard Cohen was interesting. He too received an honorable discharge, proving what that's worth. (Sorry, registration required, use "cognate@cognate.com" and password "cognate")

Posted by Will at 21:38 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I can't believe it's really taken this long for the mainstream media to catch on to the fact the current state of electronic voting is unacceptable. In today's New York Times, Paul Krugman writes an editorial that quickly details the issues involved with electronic voting machines. For more information on the problems inherent to current electronic voting machines, check out this website: BlackBoxVoting.org Then write to your representatives demanding that they do something about this fiasco. Here's an excerpt of the Krugman op-ed:

Continue reading "the perils of e-voting" »

Posted by Dennis at 19:42 (Central) | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Here is an interesting art installation in my old stomping grounds, designed to hopefully raise some awareness about the current administrations policies and failures abroad.

Posted by Dennis at 10:49 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This is an excerpt from Scott Rosenberg's blog over at Salon. Finally, a breath of fresh air in regards to the positions of virtually everybody, but Democratic candidates in particular, regarding the 'war on terror.' bq. No one is saying "outlaw regimes are no threat." What a lot of us are saying is, the Bush regime is doing a poor job of handling the real threats. While we finally pack in the inspectors and admit (despite Bush's desperate parsing of the word "program") that Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction, we face a regime in North Korea that clearly does have such weapons. Does Kim Jong Il look at Iraq and think, "Oh no, look at how quickly Bush toppled Saddam, I'm in trouble"? Or does he think, "I'm glad the U.S. is so busy trying to protect its helicopters in Baghdad -- that gives me a chance to stockpile more nukes"? bq. To review an accurate scorecard of the nation's wins and losses in the war on terror so far would be too damning of the president's performance. So instead his State of the Union lunged for the crudest advantage: "If you don't support me and my policies, you must think there's no threat at all." For a more thorough, critical breakdown of W's State of the Union address, check out this article in USA Today. I know, I know, USA Today, what? But seriously, it cuts through the spin and lays the facts out pretty plain and simple. How anyone can support Bush for re-election after reading this is beyond me...

Posted by Dennis at 23:49 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm starting to get highly anxious about the 2004 elections, mostly because I hate Bush. I still can't believe we ended up with an idiot for a president, surrounded by a bunch of war-mongering advisers.

Continue reading "get your election on" »

Posted by Dennis at 23:41 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Holy shit. I just read an actual op-ed from a conservative columnist (David Brooks of the New York Times) advocating gay marriage. It's an interesting argument he presents, one that I had been touting for a while, but I think that this is the first time I've heard it from a generally conservative voice, although admittedly he's much more moderate in his voicings than the current neo-con voice of the right. Fantastic.

Posted by Dennis at 22:02 (Central) | Comments (1)

On Tuesday, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriages should be legal partly based on the freedoms and rights granted in the Massachusetts constitution. The Washington Post ran a stellar editorial on the issue today. Whether people believe that it is right in their religion is not the issue. The issue is whether it is fair and legal to deny gay couples the benefits of a legally recognized civil marriage. What is sad is that most people can't or don't understand the separation of church and state in the USA. We are not a Christian nation, nor a Jewish one, nor a Muslim one. We have a secular government for good reason - religious freedom was one of the reasons that colonists came to the new world in the first place. There is no good secular reason to deny gay couples marriage.

In other news, the British population have been annoying Bush at every turn on his state visit over to the UK. You can check out this web site for more information. Essentially, they've been using modern communications methods (mobile phones, text messaging, wireless internet) to organize protests as fast as possible and with the intent of ruining any potential photo ops for W. They've done a pretty good job so far...

Posted by Dennis at 19:43 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Shit, I shouldn't have had that Coca-Cola.

Anyway, lots of stuff to report on in the last week or so. Many thanks to those people who came out and supported the crew last Friday at Firestation #3. Not as many people showed up as we would have liked, but it seemed like everyone was having a good time. One guy who just moved to Houston from New York asked me why there weren't more people at the event, as something like this in NY would be jammed with people. I just looked at him and told him this was Houston...

Still trying to rehab my ankle. No game this weekend, so it'll get almost a full week of rest. Hopefully that will help.

In other news, the Supreme Court ended its most recent session with some amazing rulings. I'm glad to see them rule on affirmative action with a majority opinion that recognizes that the strength of the union depends on having a diverse leadership, and that we don't currently have that now. They also ruled in Lawrence vs. Texas that the state has no right to legislate rules governing private adult consensual activity. I'm glad they did this, and I'm rather surprised to see that there are people out there who still believe that gays shouldn't have the same level of rights. Senator Frist (R-Tennessee, current Senate majority leader) has come out saying that he would back an amendment barring gay marriage. That's ridiculous. The religious right should remember that the U.S. is supposed to stand for equal rights for all, and that marriage is no longer solely a religious pact between a man and a woman. Hell, you can get married down at the courthouse by a JP, so it clearly doesn't have to be based in religion. Marriage is no more than a social contract between two people - there is no logical reason that I can find that suggests that the two people have to be of the same gender. In fact, I would argue that allowing gay marriage is to the advantage of corporations. Right now, corporations are pressured to extend benefits to partners in same-sex relationships. One of the arguments against extending benefits has been that is prone to abuse by fraud. Who's to say that those two people are really dependent on each other? If same-sex marriages were legalized, there would be no reason to extend benefits to domestic partners. It would be, to put it bluntly, a situation where the corporation could say 'put up or shut up.' It would force gay partners to get married in order to get those benefits. A possible side effect of this would be the subtle social engineering of the gay relationship. Another complaint by the religious right has been the promiscuous behaviour exhibited by many gay people. If you force gay people to get married to get benefits, well, that also opens them up to divorce and the whole load of other crap that comes along with marriage. It may actually encourage monogamy in the gay community, which then might lead to a decrease in diseases spread by sexual contact. Win-win for everyone!

OK, enough about politics and sociology. Last night I went to see a local Houston vibraphonist (Roman Skakun) with Jason Marsalis on drums. I spent a lot more money that I expected to (the show was moved from Cezanne's to Sierra Grill, causing an estimated 30% increase in my bar tab) but it was worth it. The quartet started off a little rough, but progressively got tighter. Jason Marsalis is an amazing musician - he even brought along a pair of finger cymbals that he busted out near the end of the night. Roman Skakun had some nice four-mallet work, although I felt he wasn't playing loud enough. The guitarist was talented, as was the bassist, but I felt neither of them really stood out. I am, however, slightly biased as a fellow percussionist, having played both vibraphone and drums in my earlier years...

Posted by Dennis at 03:16 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here is the mp3 of the last show. Looks like I solved the CoreAudio problem. Now it's just regular problems with distortion. Plus grounding problems. It's time to replace the RCA cables on those Technics...

In other news, the US is going to shit. Check this article, this editorial, and this article. We appear to be destroying the very liberties that are the reason we are fighting the "war on terrorism." (How one uses guns to f